Back In The Roaring Twenties

The 1920s was a period of rapid progress for trucks and truck transport. In the early part of the decade, trucks were often fitted with chain-drive systems and solid rubber tyres. Then, when the first Volvo truck, named "Series 1", rolled off the production lines in 1928, Sweden saw a truck that was shaft-driven, had pneumatic tyres, and in which the driver sat in a fully enclosed cab.

But the Series 1 truck was not a powerful truck, having a modest four-cylinder petrol engine delivering only 28 bhp, and the official payload was also limited to 1,500 kg (half of the GVW). Still, the basic design of this early truck was very sound, so people frequently used it to carry loads up to double that of the legal figure.